“Looking back at the film from all three phases of ECU, it’s exactly how we felt after the game. It was certainly not to our standard. We can play a lot better. But that’s really cool as [The Roost] pointed out the other night at the presser, when you can not play your best and we have a big enough margin for error to still find a way to win those games. It’s really nice. It speaks to what we’ve brought in this building. It speaks to how hard these players have worked. But it’s not how we want to live.” – Mike Bloomgren on learnings from the ECU game

“We’re aware that there record does not reflect the team that they are. They are a talented football team. They are a well coached football team. They have many players on both sides of the ball that would be very good players in the American Conference, there’s no doubt in my mind as I watch them play, how hard they play.”– Mike Bloomgren on UConn

“It was better. It was nowhere near the standard. It is not good enough in terms of what I’ve talked about. I don’t need to be balanced in terms of percent of run to pass, but I do want to be able to run the ball whenever we need to run the ball, and that includes 4-minute situations. We were not able to gain enough confidence in what we were doing to call runs like I would have wanted to in 4-minute.” – Mike Bloomgren on the running game

“As you see on a week to week basis, pretty much every pass is a catchable ball. He makes our job a lot easier and it’s up to us to kind of make his job as easy as we can too.” – Wide receiver Rawson MacNeill

“They’re a group of dogs. You can tell when you watch film that they really want it. They’re hungry… definitely a team that we cannot take lightly and we got to take our same preparation as we do every week.” – Safety Marcus Williams

“JT’s health is better today than yesterday, and certainly better and Sunday… I certainly don’t expect him to go full speed today, but he’s preparing to start this weekend… [Number] 18 is playing pretty good football and we’re not going to take him off the field on purpose.” – Mike Bloomgren on the status of quarterback JT Daniels

“You look at their defense, a lot of similarities to what they did last year. Offensively with the new quarterbacks that they’re rolling through, it’s a little bit different, but we can’t forget that this is a balances offense in a lot of ways, right? They’re going to have the ability to take shots. It’s going to look more pro-style, than maybe a collegiate offense.” – Mike Bloomgren on ECU

“My relationship with [ECU head coach Mike Houston] goes back to 2002 when he was the head coach of TC Roberson High School and Asheville, North Carolina and I was coaching Catawba College and I was recruiting his school and going in there talking ball and just hanging out. And now the fact that we’re playing each other on a Saturday in major college football, it’s pretty cool.” – Mike Bloomgren on ECU head coach Mike Houston

“I feel like they’re pretty balanced. They want to run the ball. I feel like the’re a pretty good group, well well coached. Definitely a lot of strain on their offensive line. It’s always good going against competitors so we can’t wait to get in there. But for the most part, they’re pretty balanced.” – Defensive linamen De’Braylon Carroll on ECU

“It was the first time I’ve ever looked up at the jumbotron driver to see if there’s anything behind me. I’ve always watched athletes do that and I was like, ‘How do they do that?’ I don’t understand how they look up while they run, but I just kind of saw it in my peripheral [vision] and used it as a tool.”– Running back Dean Connors on his long TD against USF 

“It makes our job as coaches, easy. When you can see the quality of the opponent on the film you watch all week, you know we got to be locked into the details if we want this dub… They played like a very confident group against Alabama on Saturday. I thought their defense did exceptional and their offense had many opportunities. They were not ever struggling to move the ball.” – Mike Bloomgren on what Rice learned from watching USF play Alabama

“I just think like that tempo is going to be a deciding factor in how successful we are. If we’re ready for the fight, I’ll bet on our defense. If we’re ready for the fight every play I just believe so strongly in the way these guys are performing the effort and they’re playing with.” – Mike Bloomgren on preparing for USF’s tempo on offense

“I think they do a lot of movement, a lot of good things for them that fit their scheme, but I believe it’s on us up front. If we handle our business and give JT [Daniels] the time he needs, there’s nothing that can stop our offense, to be honest.” – Offensive lineman Lavel Dumont on preparing for USF’s defense

“The last time I was at the Buccaneers Stadium was 2006 with Sean… Being behind the bench, him scoring and handing me the ball, it’s probably going to bring back a lot of memories but our main focus is to win, go 1-0 with the team and head back to Houston.” – Safety Gabe Taylor on returning to Raymond James Stadium and remembering his brother, Sean Taylor